More than a million toilet flushing systems have been recalled in the United States after a spate of cistern explosions caused injuries.

Flushmate, a unit of IL bathroom equipment maker Sloan Valve Company, has received more than 1,400 reports in the U.S. and seven in Canada of the toilet systems bursting, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said Thursday. The notice says Flushmate has heard of 1,453 bursts in the US and Canada, causing about $710,000 in property damage and "23 injury reports with one requiring foot surgery". The Flushmate II 501-B pressure-assisted flushing systems were sold at Home Depot, Lowe's, through plumbers and online from 1996 through 2015. They were installed in toilets made by American Standard, Corona, Crane, Kohler and Mansfield.

The Flushmate II 501-B is supposed to function as a pressure-assisted flushing system.

Buyers are also advised to turn off the water supply to the unit before flushing the chain to release any internal pressure. The units were sold in the USA between September 1996 and December 2015.

The remaining characters are the model code, which starts with M and ends with F.

Flushmate is urging customers to check the model and serial numbers of their units to determine if theirs is one of the products being recalled.

The recall issued Thursday included about 17,300 flushing systems sold in Canada. "Although Flushmate discontinued shipping the product within toilet fixtures in 2006, when the Flushmate II 501-B became a replacement part, and discontinued the product altogether in 2013, we are communicating with customers who may still own the product to offer a free Flushmate replacement unit and installation by a technician".

Officials noted that millions of Flushmate III pressure-assisted flushing systems were previously recalled for the same reason in 2012, 2014 and 2016.